• A is for All Alone
  Feed Honest Kitchen food by itself as a complete meal (except preference, which you mix with meat). Just add water and it’s ready to go!
• B is for Base–mix
  Use as a base for your own home-prepared ingredients. Lots of people love to make their pets’ food. Honest Kitchen recipes are an excellent starting point (with balanced calcium: phosphorus ratios) that you can mix with your own meat and other goodies.
• C is for Complementary
  Mix with kibble as a convenient, healthy whole food topping that provides more phyto-nutrients than cooked diets. Because our foods are gently dehydrated, they retain much more of the natural nutrition that conventional pet food production methods. If you aren’t ready to make the switch to 100% fresh or dehydrated food, try our recipes as toppers, so your pet can still enjoy some of the benefits of a whole food diet! Feed a ½ and ½ mixture of THK and your favorite kibble, or in whatever ratio works well for your pet.
• D is for Defrosting error
  Use as a stand-in when you forget to thaw your raw! Some of our customers feed raw food most of the time. But sometimes, schedules can be disrupted or plain old absent-mindedness can set in. Our foods are great to keep on hand as a stand-in for just such occasions!
• E is for Emergencies
  Dehydrated foods are compact to store – you can keep our products in your emergency preparedness kit for up to 12 months and they’ll be easy to take if you ever have to leave home in a hurry.
• F is for Fun outdoors
  Take on your travels, backpacking and camping – our foods are lightweight, and quick & easy to prepare for a tasty meal on the road. Each dry-measured cup of our food makes a whole pound of fresh food when rehydrated.

Adding other ingredients to Honest Kitchen diets is not necessary (except for our base mixes Preference and Kindly which requires protein to be added). Our foods are formulated to meet the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles and can be fed alone. Nonetheless, many of our customers love to mix up their companion’s meals with home-made extras. We would encourage this because we think that pets deserve variety in their diets just like we humans do. Our foods have balanced calcium: phosphorus ratios to allow you to add in extras in moderate amounts without throwing these important minerals outside their optimum ratios.

Some popular add-ins are:

Meat
Raw meaty bones
Cottage cheese
Plain yogurt
Fruits and veggies

It is essential that you re-hydrate our dehydrated recipes before serving it to your pet. The food expands when it comes in contact with moisture (water/ broth) so it is important that this takes place in the food bowl before consumption, instead of expanding in your pet’s tummy.

When the food is hydrated, it will not expand further after eating, which is why our food is ideal for breeds who are prone to experiencing bloating.

We as pet owners often have the urge to pull our hair apart whenever our pets start to pick on their food. Some pets transition easily and love our food right away, and others end up in a battle of will with their owners! Here are some tips to win the battle against your picky dogs and cats!

Picky Cats

• Trick them by dipping your cat’s paw into Honest Kitchen food! Since cats want to be clean, they will lick their paw, through this process they will become more accustomed to the taste of Honest Kitchen food!
• Adjusting their feeding schedule, start by feeding only two times per day, leaving the food out for about 30 minutes each time. Pick up the leftover food, refrigerate and serve to them at the next feeding time.

Picky Dogs

• Rehydrate The Honest Kitchen with a low-sodium broth in replace of the water.
• Add a spoonful of plain yogurt, cottage cheese, or a sprinkle of shredded cheese.
• Tweak the texture of the food by increasing or decreasing the amount of water to make the food more or less soupy.
• Adjusting their feeding schedule, start by feeding only two times per day, leaving the food out for about 30 minutes each time. Pick up the leftover food, refrigerate and serve to them at the next feeding time.

Our dehydrated foods are naturally shelf stable and should be stored in a cool, dry place – out of sunlight. We don’t recommend refrigerating our food when it’s dry, because this can introduce moisture. If you want to freeze the food, you should hydrate it first (some of our customers like to freeze in individual pre-made portions). If you do choose to place the dry food in the freezer, we recommend keeping the box in the freezer for the remainder of its use.

Our foods have a shelf life of twelve to twenty four months, depending on the product, the ambient temperature and humidity where you live. The date of manufacture is printed on the top of every box in a specially designed ‘tear out and keep’ card.

• Complete diets – 12 months from MFG date
• Base mixes – 18 months from MFG date
• Cookies – 12 months from MFG date
• Pure fish treats – 18 months from MFG date
• Pro Bloom – 12 months from MFG date
• Perfect Form – 24 months from MFG date